Chamber and committees

Information relating to the cost of fatal accident inquiries is not held centrally.

The proposed commission will be of vital importance to equality communities in Scotland, and to the Scottish private, voluntary and public sectors. The Scottish Executive has worked closely with Whitehall colleagues over several years and ensured that Scottish needs have been reflected in the Bill. The Executive has also supported significant stakeholder input from non-Governmental organisations in Scotland into the UK Government project.

No meetings have taken place between Scottish Executive ministers and UK Government ministers so no minutes exist. Communities ministers in the Executive and UK Government ministers from the Department for Trade and Industry have been in contact both in writing and over the telephone during the project. Ministers from the DTI, Scotland Office and the Scottish Executive have spoken at the same public event.

The proposals in the Equality Bill and the preceding White Paper Fairness for All in May 2004 (Bib. number 32752) are clear on proposed arrangements for the new Commission in Scotland. The new Commission will have an office in Scotland. It will be a reserved body and will report to the UK Government, however it will also be expected to work closely with the Scottish Executive, to provide a report annually on its activities to the Scottish Parliament and to work closely with the Equal Opportunities Committee of the Scottish Parliament. It’s board will be appointed by the UK Government; however the designated Scottish Commissioner must be appointed with the agreement of Scottish ministers. The new Commission’s budget was not set before the dissolution of the UK Parliament.

The grant offered has been set at a level that will support action research events and targeted networking events. The centre is wholly independent of the Executive and no financial targets nor performance targets other than delivery of the funded work have been set.

The funding was agreed by the Minister for Health and Community Care, the Minister for Education and Young People and the Minister for Communities on the basis of the business plan for the centre and supporting papers provided to the Executive.

The Executive is in discussion with the centre with regard to future projects that may be supported in 2005-06 and in the two years beyond which would support a range of key Executive policies including physical and mental health improvement, arts, culture, sport and enterprise where we are already working to boost levels of confidence.

The consultation process to consider making the current voluntary levy compulsory is still on-going. I understand however that Skillset and Scottish Screen’s Scottish Industry Skills Panel (SISP), which is a cross industry group, have advised that they see this as a positive step.

Given the current consultation, I understand that no final decision has been made yet on how any new compulsory levy will be applied or how it will be invested.

I can advise, however, that under the current voluntary levy, Scotland has been a net beneficiary of the Skills Investment Fund.

I have met the Chief Executive of the Premier Custodial Group to discuss the issues raised by the broadcast, and the SPS Director of Prison Services, who is responsible for oversight of the HM Prison Kilmarnock contract on behalf of SPS, has met the SPS Controller based there to consider issues which bear on the monitoring and controlling of the contract. He has also met the Director of HM Prison Kilmarnock and discussed the action that is being taken by Premier.

The company has informed us that it has begun an investigation into the allegations. It has been in contact with the BBC to ask for their co-operation in securing all available information. The SPS will work closely with the company to ensure that all necessary actions are taken.

I refer the member to the answer to S2W-15194 on 14 April 2005 by Cathy Jamieson. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

However, for those NHS board areas for which this information is available, the following tables show the levels of obesity amongst pre-school children (three to three and a half years) and for school children (at primary 1, primary 7 and secondary 3).

Obesity is a pressing concern for the Scottish Executive. Our health improvement programme focuses strongly on improving diet and raising physical activity levels, for example through healthy school meals, recruitment of 620 Active School Coordinators in addition to a range of measures to improve access to healthy food and increased opportunities for physical activity in schools.

Table 1, High BMI Distribution (Obese >=95th Centile): Children Receiving a Review in P1 (Four-to-Five Years), P7(11 to 12 years) and S3 (14 to 15 Years); by School Year

Source: SMR10, CHSP-S ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Extracted from School Health (SMR10).

2. 1993-94 data are not available. Collection of SMR10 ceased in 1993 and therefore school year 1992-93 is the last available year of collection.

3. Extracted from the Child Health Surveillance Programme: School. Figures are based on information from Argyll and Clyde, Borders, Fife, Lanarkshire, Tayside NHS Boards and West Lothian NHS Trust.

4. Excludes Tayside where data are not complete.

5. Excludes Argyll and Clyde and Tayside where no S3 reviews were carried out.

Table 2

High BMI Distribution (>=95th Centile): Children Receiving a 39 to 42 Month Review (Three-to-Three-and-a-Half Years) by Year of Birth 1996 to 2000.

Source: CHSP-PS ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Extracted from the Child Health Surveillance Programme: Pre school.

2. Figures are from the following Health Boards: Argyll and Clyde, Ayrshire and Arran, Borders, Fife, Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside. Dumfries and Galloway did not implement the pre-school system until December 2000 and therefore are excluded from 1996 and 1997 figures

In some cases the judicial determination will be delivered orally in open court at the conclusion of the inquiry.

When, instead, a written determination is issued, the sheriff clerk will forward a copy to all parties who were represented at the Inquiry. Copies are also made available for the press.

When the sheriff considers that the determination is likely to be of wider interest, he/she may instruct that a copy be made available on the Scottish Courts website.

Information on the proportion of FAIs which related to deaths of prisoners is not held centrally. The number of prisoners whose deaths have been/will be the subject of an FAI are provided in the following table. However, the FAI would not necessarily be held in the year of death.

Information on time periods is not held centrally.